Everything From Virginia Tech DL Coach J.C. Price On Wednesday Ahead of Week 2

Virginia Tech defensive line coach J.C. Price spoke to the media following Wednesday's practice; here's the entirety of what he had to say.

On how Price feels about his group following Week 1:

"I think they played well. There was still things we had to clean up, technique issues, missed assignment here or there, but for the most part, I thought we controlled them up front and I thought the guys played really hard, which is all you can ask for."

Q: Is there a physicality aspect that you don't really know about until you see them go up against another team instead of your own offense?

"Well, only the guys who haven't really been here. I know what I'm going to get from [Kelvin Gilliam]. I know what I'm going to get from Kemari [Copeland]. I know what I'm going to get from Emmett [Laws]. It's not necessarily just going against our guys, but just because you've been under the lights with those guys before. So, it was fun to watch those new guys and see how they handled the the environment, which was a tough environment. And I thought we did pretty well."

Q: You weren't lying about rolling deep with how many guys you're going to put in the game there. I think Copeland and Bell had the most snaps at 35 out of 56. Do you feel like that really showed up at the end that those guys were fresh?

"Well, that was a major sticking point for us last year. When you have the kind of season we did, you you evaluate everything and maybe, at the end of a game last year, there was a guy that was a little fresher, could have made a play that made a difference. So, I'm going to continue to roll those guys. I believe in that. I believe you can play less snaps, play as hard as you can. You can even be more productive than if you were out there if you were tired. So, I like our group. Uh I think I got to get [Arias] Nash a little bit more involved. He's had a great week of practice. So, just continue to roll those guys and have a good healthy rotation. Keep track, so nobody's playing too much."

On Copeland and Gilliam possessing familiarity with Diego Pavia and Vanderbilt:

"It's just the next opponent. I mean, we're not looking at anything [from] last year. Last year was last year. We're a different team. They're a different team. We have a different D-line in our room. They got a different O-line. Pavia is back. He's a good player. He's probably one of the most competitive guys in the country. And we got to play really well to to stop the kid."

Q: They probably didn't show much of the Straw Southern. What do you tell your guys about expecting the unexpected from them?

"They got good coaches there and and they're going to try to outnumber you and then they're going to run their stuff. It's the same stuff they ran against us [in Game 1] last year, they were running game eight last year and they ran against Charleston Southern. So, they're going to do what they do. They believe in it. They're good at it and we got to be good enough to stop him."

On Emmett Laws:

"Emmett had a good game. I know he had the big play for the safety and he had the other half-sack with [Caleb Woodson] and to be honest with you, I wish he could have found a way to strip the ball right there. We're trying to make sure that we're attacking the ball and he had a couple plays that he'd like to have back, but that's everybody. That's every player on the field [that] is going to be like that. Nothing's ever going to be perfect and you just hope you got more good plays than the guy you're going against. But he played really well, especially for a [redshirt] freshman."

On generating pass rush while keeping seven in coverage:

"Well, any time you can generate pass rush for four and keep seven in coverage, you're going to be a better defense and you're going to be a better third-down defense. That's what I think everyone strives for. But the big emphasis all last week was keeping that guy [LaNorris Sellers] in the pocket. Making him be a quarterback and not allowing him to get on edges and make plays, extend the play and have our guys covering for more than six seconds. Because that's where he really gets dangerous and he's good at it. On that play, we did a nice job with our pass rush lanes and we got the sack."

On Elhadj Fall:

"The guy's just consistent. He loves ball. He's smart. He's got really good hands. He was well coached at his previous school and he's come here and picked up everything we've been doing and he's run with it. He's a guy right now [that] off the first game and off of camp I got complete trust in him."

Q: He's a pretty big guy, are you looking for bigger guys at that end spot today?

"No, once again I'm not a cookie cutter guy. If you can play, you can play. I mean, you look at how big Kemari is. You look at Emmett, you look at James Djonkam, you can look at Elhadj, I look for a skillset and a mindset and and that's what I like to recruit to."

On James Jennette:

"James has [played well]. Last year, he was kind of pigeonholed to special teams. He had a problem keeping some weight on last year and I think he's done a nice job. He knows this is his last shot and he's prepared like it. He's played like it and he's been Steady Eddie since uh since back before, in winter workouts and in spring. So, I'm really happy for him and excited to watch him play again this Saturday."

On how Kemari Copeland has stood out:

"He just flashes the same way he stood out to you. He's very disruptive, as far as his penetration, his get off. He's strong, he's aggressive, he's violent, he's what you want in a in a D lineman. If you had a cookie-cutter D-lineman for me, it would be the guy who squats 800 pounds, benches 600 and runs 4.7. That’d be perfect."

Q: Where are you challenging this group to improve?

"Just consistency because you make the most improvement between Week 1 and 2, so I wanted to see us come out and and do better fundamentally. Even some of the plays we made were, footwork could have been better, hand placement could have been better, pad level could have been better, the finish could have been better. We talked about not tackling that quarterback high. Kemari missed a sack because he tried to get him [Sellers] high. And we had a blitz where someone didn't do their job and it should have been another sack. I mean, when you watch the film, I thought we could have had a couple more sacks out there. And so, just once again, just being consistent and making sure you're doing your job first and then the results will come."

On player-led leadership:

"Well, the hardest thing is in the world is to correct or talk to a peer and whether it's couple 50-year-olds, like us coaches, it's hard for me to tell a coach and it's hard sometimes for kids to talk to kids. And the teams that can do that have a great chance of winning every Saturday. You look through our history here at Virginia Tech, there's been teams that had rough starts and come through it and won championships. And they've been doing that since the spring and since the winter. That was not the first player-only meeting. And that's what [defensive recruiting coordinator Derek "Cheetah" Jones] always says. Shouldn't have player-only meetings just when it's bad. That stuff's got to start when it's still good. And they've been having those all along. So, that was not a surprise to me or or the staff."

Q: Is there any change of mindset that you're preaching to the guys going into Week 2?

"No. The mindset's always the same. We got to stop the run. And it's a different mindset because it's a different team. What we need to do to to to slow down South Carolina is probably a little bit different than what we need to do to slow down Vanderbilt. And that's the great thing about [defensive coordinator Sam Siefkes]' system. It's easily adaptable and how we can attack people can change from week-to-week depending on what they do on offense."